Moreinu Harav Loew was
born on the night of Pesach, 1512, to a distinguished family of rabbis who
traced their ancestry to King David. The youngest of four brothers, he married
Pearl when he was 32. That union led to six girls and one boy named Bezalel,
which was also the name of his grandfather (Guess the name of the
grandfather’s American descendant).

In 1552 he was elected
the rabbi of Nikolsburg in Moravia, where he remained for 20 years until he
moved to Prague in 1573, where he opened a “Yeshivah”, or Jewish school of
theology. Among his students were the famous Rabbi Lipman Heller, whose
commentary on the Mishnah, Tosefot Yomtof is a masterpiece of
erudition.

After a six year absence
from Prague, during which he served as rabbi of Posen, the Maharal returned to
Prague as chief rabbi (a position unknown in this country). A prolific (from proles,
the Latin for children) writer, he published Tiferet Yisrael, a
commentary on the Torah, and Netivot Olam, a book on ethics. He also
wrote Be’er Hagolah, a commentary on rabbinic proverbs, and Netzach
Ysrael, which deals with redemption. Further, he wrote Or Chadash, concerning
the Book of Esther, Ner Mitzvah on Chanukah, and a number of additional
books dealing with religious and other topics.

All these books may seem
antiquated to us, not only because they are indeed over four hundred years
old, but also because they are written in Hebrew, which most of us don’t
understand. Yet, we cannot overlook that among those who do understand the
work of the Maharal they rank as high as that of his contemporary in a quite
different arena, William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

The Maharal was an
advanced leader in education. He insisted that children should betaught
according to their intellectual maturity and not only their chronological age.
When this idea was proposed much later by the great American philosopher John
Dewey it became the cornerstone of “progressive” education.

Because of his immense
learning and courageous defense of the Jewish people against the usual
enemies, many legends arose concerning the Maharal. Rabbi Loew was said to
have created a GOLEM. A GOLEM is a monster created by humans. The Czech word
for GOLEM is Roboto, from which we derive the word robot. The best
known GOLEM story in English is the story of Dr. Frankenstein, written by Mary
Wollstonecraft Godwin (daughter of the novelist Mary Wollstonecraft), when she
and her husband Percy Shelley visited Switzerland in the company of Lord Byron
in 1816.

The legends concerning
the GOLEM of Prague are many. The story was even made into a German movie in
1920.

Rabbi Yehuda Loew’s
father, Bezalel Loeb, had four sons. One of his sons was Sinai Loew. He in
turn had a descendant, Josefina Loew, who became the grandmother of Ida Loew.
She married Fritz Kohn, a native of Moravia. The Kohns immigrated to Boston,
Massachusetts in 1905. Before coming to the United States they changed their
name to Kerry and converted to Catholicism. Their son, Richard Kerry, then
became the father of Senator John Kerry, the current Democratic candidate for
the Presidency of the United States.

Like so many other
non-Jewish descendants of Jews, Kerry tried for years to hide his Jewish
ancestry, claiming to be of Irish descent. He even said on the floor of the
U.S. Senate, “those of us, fortunate to be of Irish ancestry”, etc.

Seeking to “lean over
backwards”, Kerry is a vehement critic of Israel. Calling the terrorist
Yassir Arafat a “statesman”, Kerry spoke to the Arab-American Institute
and denounced the wall the Israelis are forced to build to keep the Arab
murderers from attacking them with homicide bombs. Kerry is also a great
friend and protégé of Jimmy Carter, former President of the U.S., who said
in a speech in Switzerland that if he had been re-elected President a second
time he would have instituted “the final solution” to the Israel problem.
Of course we all know what the phrase “final solution” means. Well, Kerry
has proposed sending Carter to Israel as our ambassador. With such
“friends”, who needs enemies?

Kerry and the Democratic
establishment are no friends of the Jewish people. Indeed they may pose as
such during an election year. Yet, should they be elected, Israel will be in
serious trouble as will the American Jewish community. Remember that only 30%
of Democrats favor the survival of Israel. Keep that in mind in November.